Doll and method of making the same



2 A K M DOLL AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed Feb. 29, 1940 m 7INVENTORL V fizz/(r.

A TTQRNEYS Patented Aug. 12?, liii ti BULL AND METHOD F ING THE SAMEAbraham M. nan, Brod ideal Novelty & 'lloy 63o hiyn, N. Y... assignor tolong island City, N. 1

a corporation of New York Application February 29, 1940, Serial No.322,178

3 Claims.

My. invention relates to a new and improved doll, and a new and improvedmethod for making the same.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a doll having a bodywhich is provided with integral limbs, said body and limbs being made offlexible and resilient rubber. Said body and limbs are provided with asuitable compressible and resilient stuffing.

Another object of the invention consists in providing a limb withseparate fingers or toes. so as to simulate a human hand or foot, and toprovide said fingers or toes with resilient filling material.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method ofapplying the filling material to the fingers and toes of thelimb-members of the body.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved doll-headhaving an outer covering or skin of rubber.

Whenever I refer to rubber herein, I include a synthetic or'substituterubber.

Another object of the invention is to provide a doll having a life-likefeel and appearance and an improved method of making the same.

Other objects of my invention will be set forth in the followingdescription and drawing which illustrates a preferred embodiment, itbeing understood that the above statement of the objects of my inventionis intended to generally explain the same without limiting it in anymanner.

Fig. 1 is a front elevation, partially broken away, of the improveddoll.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 H of Fig. 1. a

Fig. 4 illustrates the improved method of applying a liquid or viscousfilling material to the fingers of an arm-member.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view of an arm-member showing the different kindsof filling material.

The doll body l is integral with arms 6 and with legs 6a.; This dollbody. i, including the dipping operations. After a rubber skin of properthickness has thus been formed, the dried rubher skin is vulcanized inany suitable manner. I prefer to vulcanize the rubber skin. by means ofincluding the integral arms and legs,

steam or hot air as distinguished from a cold cure.

After the rubber skin has thus been vulcanized, it is stripped from themold. The mold is preferably made of aluminum or other metal so that itcan withstand the temperature of vulcanization.

The rubber body can then be stuffed through the neck opening with anysuitable soft and compressible material, such as kapok or the like. Thiskapok stuffing is preferably omitted at the junctions between thelimb-members 6, 6a and the body, so as to form natural bendable jointsat said junctions. Instead of wholly omitting the stufiing at saidjunctions, the stuffing can be made relatively thin at said junctions,so that the limbs of the doll can be bent readily relative to the bodythereof. The rubber skin has sufiicient thickness and elasticity andresilience so as to maintain the arms and legs in normal position.Therefore, if a leg is bent relative tothe body of the doll, the naturalresilience of the rubber skin will return the leg to the normal positionillustrated in Fig. 1.

According to this method of manufacture, the fingers i and the toes laare separated from each other, thus simulating the human body. It isvery difiicult to stuff material such as wadded or felted kapok orsimilar stuffing material, into the fingers I and the toes la. Likewise,it is objectionable to fill the hollows of the fingers 1 and of the toesla with coagulated latex or the like, after the body has been strippedfrom its aluminum mold. The use of latex or other form of unvulcanizedrubber would require a second vulcanization treatment. The originalrubber skin is preferably vulcanized by heating the same on the mold insteam. Over-vulcanization of the rubber is objectionable. Therefore, ifthe fingers and toes of the doll body were filled with unvulcanizedrubber, a second vulcanization treatment would be necessary in order tovulcanize the rubber filling material and this would result in a doublevulcanization of the remainder or skin portion of the body, which wouldbe objectionable. I therefore prefer to fill the fingers i with acomposition H! which may be of the type used for makingprinting-rollers.

Various compositions of this type are known and the following formula istherefore merely illustrative:

Parts Powdered hide glue i Glycerine 1%; Water 1 Sugar The aboveproportion are by weight. The Water and glycerine are mixed, and theglue and the sugar are added to said. mixture with con-= stant stirring.The mixture is then allowed to stand until the glue has been thoroughlysoaked. The mass is then subjected to gentle heat, as for example bymeans of a water bath, until the glue has melted. When the mass iscompletely molten and it has been freed of all air bubbles, the mixtureis ready for use.

The auxiliary mold 8, made of aluminum or other suitable material, andhaving a bore 8, is located in the arm 6, for example. Such an auxiliarymold is inserted into an arm or leg, after the rubber skin has beenvulcanized and then stripped from the original dipping mold. Theaforesaid melted mass is poured or forced under suit-able pressurethrough the bore 9 until it fills the fingers i. For this purpose, aplunger may be operated in the bore 9, so as to force the glue materialinto the fingers, and to maintain the glue material in the fingers untilthe material has set. Said mass may also. fill a portion of the hand.The composition is then allowed to set in the usual manner. The feltedor wadded filling 5 is then inserted into the arm as illustrated in Fig.5, after the auxiliary mold 8 has been removed.

- Instead of.using a liquid tofill the hollows of the toes and fingers,and then setting said liquid, I can also use finely divided solidmaterials such as cork particles, and finely divided fibers of allkinds, such as cotton, silk, rayon, mineral wool, natural wool, etc.troduced under suitable pressure through the bore 9 of the mold 8, whilethe rubber skin is held against the surface of the mold 8, by anysuitable means. Thev resilient filling composition H) can thereforeconsist of finely divided resilient particles or fibers, such as corkand the like. These particles may 'beconnected to each other and to theinner walls of the fingers. These particles or fibers are held in placeby the main filling 5. The particles of cork can be connected to eachother and to the inner surface of the finger-portions and toe-portionsby any suitable binder. l i P i Such a binder may consist of one part;of

granulated glue and one part of glycerine (95%). The glycerine can bewarmed over a steam bath. The glue is then added and the mixture isthoroughly stirred and allowed to stand for a suitable period, such as24 hours. This product is a tough and rubber-like material and it may beused either alone, or as a binder for the cork composition. If thisproduct is usedas a binder, it is mixed with the finely dividedparticles, which can be injected through bore 9 by an air blast, or byusing a suitable plunger or nozzle which is inserted into bore 9. I canalso use egg albumen or other albumen or heat coagulable adhesive as abinder for finely divided cork particles and the like, since the eggalbumen can be readily dissolved in water and it coagulates quickly at atemperature of 140 F. This temperature is too low to injure the rubber.The cork particles or the fibers can be mixed with a binding solution ofthe egg albumen to form a mass which is inserted into the fingers andtoes. v

The head 2 of the doll is provided with a groov in which a retainingwire 4 is located. This wire 4 holds the neck-portion of the casing tothe neck-portion of the head. The rubber skin is wound at 3 around thewire 4, in order to corn ceal the wire. g

The head 2 is preferably made of cellulose acetate or other suitablemoldable material, or it can be molded out of the usual wood fiour corn-Said fibers can be inv position. If the head is covered with a rubberskin by means of a clipping operation, and said skin is subsequentlyvulcanized, the rubber skin does not adhere uniformly to the outersurface of the head. The skin therefore separates, forming objectionablewrinkles. I therefore prefer to coat the head, prior to dipping, with athermoprene cement. This cement is well-known per se and it is derivedby reacting rubber with phenol sulphonic acid and other reagents. Thiscement is known under the trade name of Vulcalack. I can also coat thehead, prior to dipping into the latex or the like, with an aqueoussolution of egg albumen, or other suitable albumen or heat-coagulableadhesive. After said aqueous solution has dried, either wholly, orpartially, the head is dipped into the latex.

It is customary to finish a doll head which is made of wood compositionwith a coating of varnish or the like. Since this varnish waterproofsthe outer surface of the head, it is difficult to get good adhesionbetween a head which has been thus finished, and the film of latex. Ifthe thermoprene cement is used, this can be applied to a head made ofwood composition which has been finished with a water-repellent varnish.The solution of the albumen can also be applied to the wood-compositionhead, after said head has been finished with a water-repellent varnishor lacquer. However I prefer to omit the finishing varnish or lacquerfor the wood-composition head and to apply the albumen solution to theunfinished head, so that the solution penetrates the material of thehead to some extent. The albumen is compatible with the latex during thedipping operation and the coagulated albumen produces firm adhesionbetween the head and the rubber skin. The albumen may form a thincoating or layer upon the wood-composition head, in addition topenetrating said head. If a head is made of cellulose acetate or othernon-porous material, the layer of coagulated albumen forms a binderbetween such material and the outer rubber skin.

The original mold which is used for dipping into the latex, in order toproduce the body of the doll is preferably wholly integral and rigid.

The rubber skin does not have suflicient rigidity to maintain the samein the stuffed shape shown in Fig. 1. This shape is yieldinglymaintained by the filling, while permitting the easy compression of thebody and the arms and legs so as to simulate the softness of the hum-anbody. However, and after the filling has been applied, the rubber skinhas sufficient resilience at the joints between the body and the limbs,to main tain said limbs yieldingly in the position shown in Fig. 1. Theeffect is the same as though each limb were connected to the body bymeans of a universal joint, so that; the arms can be raised and loweredrelative to the body. 'I'l'iearms can also be moved sideways relative tothe body and they can be turned or twisted relative to the body. Thelegs are also freely movable relative to the body in all directions,including a twisting movement. However, upon releasing a limb, it ismoved back to the normal position in Fig. l.

The layers of the rubber skin are close to each other at thejoint-portion between the body of the skin and the limb members thereof.This construction provides a flattened and reduced throat at the innerend of each limb member. This throat is normally of elliptical shape.This reduced throat maintains the mass of filling material in the bodyand in the limb members, separate from each other. Likewise this contourpro- .vides a spring effect, at the joint-portions between the body andthe limb members, so that the limb members are held yieldingly in thenormal position shown in Fig. 1.

Instead of making the body and the limb members in one piece, they canbe formed in separate sections which can be connected to each other bysuitable members made of elastic rubber, thus'producing the same resultas though the limbs were originally formed integrally with the body.However I prefer to make the entire body, including the limb members,in'one piece, as this lowers labor cost. While the skin is preferably ofuniform thickness throughout, said thickness may vary. The skin can beof extra thickness at the joints between the body and the limb members,so as to provide greater strength at these points. Likewise the fingerand toe portions can be made of greater thickness than the remainder ofthe skin. By making said finger and toe portions with relatively finebores, and

by making said finger and toe portions with resilient walls ofsuflicient thickness, it is unnecessary to fill said finger and toeportions. Such greater thickness can be secured by increasing the numberof dipping operations at the fingers and toes, or by applying additionallatex to said fingers and toes in any suitable manner, as by brushing,spraying, or the like.

I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention but it is clear thatnumerous changes and omissions could be made without departing from itsspirit. For the purposes of the claims, a doll body which consists of aplurality of connected parts, is equivalent to a doll body in which thelimbs are integral with the body portion.

When I refer to albumen, I include egg albumen, serum albumin, andlact-albumin from milk. I

The heat-coagulable adhesive can contain inedients other than thealbumin.

By providing the head 2 with an elastic rubber skin, it is unnecessaryto use the Wire 4. After the head has been temporarily assembled withthe body, a suitable adhesive can be applied to the outer surface of thehead and to the outer surface of the neck-portion of the body. The headand the neck-portion of the body can then be dipped again in latex, inone or more dips, so as to provide a rubber skin for the head which willoverlap the rubber skin at the neckportion of the body. Thissupplemental rubber skin can then be vulcanized. This supplementalrubber skin can contain sufficient accelerators so that it can bevulcanized at a very low temperature, thus preventing theover-vulcanization of the main rubber skin. Likewise, I can use apre-vulcanized latex for making the supplemental rubber skin, and drythe latex coating of the supplemental rubber skin at relatively lowtemperature. Vulcanized rubber latex is well-known in the market underthe name offVultex" and 1 other trade names, so that the properties ofthis type of latex are well-known.

An important feature of my invention is the special formation of thejoint-portions or zones J between the torso'and the legs and arms of thedoll. Said special joint-portions J can be provided at the knee-portionsof the legs of the doll. At said joint-portions the stuffing ispreferably wholly omitted. Likewise the skin is of flattened contour atsaid joint-portions J. That is, the area of the inner cross-section ofthe limb-member at joint J is smaller than the area of the innercross-section of the next adjacent portion of the limb. The oppositeinner surfaces of the skin may substantially abut each other, or saidinner surfaces are separated slightly from each other. This formation issecured by correspondingly shaping the mold which is used for dippinginto the latex, either prevulcanized or not pre-vulcanized. Thethickness of the mold is greatly reduced at the portions thereof whichcorrespond to the joint-portions J. The resilience of the stuffed rubberskin thus provides natural springs at the joint-portions. These springspermit the limbs to be freely bent and twisted, and said springsnormally hold the legs and arms in predetermined normal position.

I claim:

1. A hollow doll-body comprising a hollow v torso and a hollowlimb-member, said torso and said limb-member having an integral elasticrubber skin, said torso having a filling, said limbmember also having afilling, the joint-portion of said skin between said torso and saidlimbmember being flexible and being substantially empty, said skinhaving afnormal shape in which the inner cross-section of "saidlimb-member is of smaller area at said joint-portion relative to theinner cross-section of the next adjacent portion of said limb-member andsaid joint-portion being sufficiently flexible to permit the limbmemberto bend freely in all directions relative to the torso, and to permitthe limb-member to be twisted around its axis relative to the torso, theadjacent walls of said skin being unconnected to each other at saidjoint-portion.

2. A doll-body which has a torso and a limbmember, said torso and saidlimb-member having an integral elastic rubber skin, said torso having afilling and said limb-member having another filling, said skin having ajoint-portion at the junction between the torso and the limb-mem ber,said joint-portion being freely bendable and twistable and havingsufficient resilience to assume a predetermined normal shape, when saidjoint-portion is unstressed, said skin having a normal shape in whichthe cross-section of said joint-portion is substantially elliptical, theadjacent walls of said skin being unconnected to each other at saidjoint-portion.

3. A doll-body which has a torso and a limbmember, said torso and saidlimb-member hay-- area than the next adjacent portion of the skin of thelimb, the adjacent walls of said skin being unconnected to each other atsaid joint-portion.

ABRAHAM M. KATZ.

